during her debutante season in letting loose her pet rat, Ratular, at coming-out dances and once even at Buckingham Palace. Enid, her grass snake, possibly also made the odd appearance at debutante dances, to the general alarm of the other guests and to Unity’s glee.
After Diana married, Jessica, for whom she had always been the favourite sister, missed her badly and it was possibly from this time that her extreme rebelliousness and dissatisfaction with life began. As a young child she is remembered as being pretty, very funny and happy with her lot. Like the others she loved her animals, especially her pet sheep Miranda who became her constant companion. But unlike the others during childhood, she was far from being an outdoor girl, much preferring reading to riding. Diana spent hours with her in the pony paddock trying to teach her to ride her pony Joey, coaxing her to climb back onto him when she fell off for the umpteenth time.
Unity being sent to boarding school and Jessica not being allowed to go to school in Burford were probably other turning points; they transformed her from the little girl who would take hold of her father’s arm and shake it, telling him that she was giving him ‘palsy practice’ for his old age, into a bored and resentful teenager who couldn’t wait to leave home. She opened an account at Drummond’s Bank in which to save her ‘running away money’ – mainly her pocket money and the Christmas presents she received from various aunts. In the family the account was regarded as a joke and Nancy used it in The Pursuit of Love , where Linda’s little sister Jassy also has a running away fund, but Jessica was deadly serious as later events were to show. Tom, when he came home, realised that Jessica’s main problem was boredom with her situation and, ever the bookworm himself, introduced her to the sort of writers he felt she would enjoy. This helped but did not solve the problem.
Despite the differences in their outlook, Jessica and Debo were close companions. They would talk all day in Honnish, which was less incomprehensible than Boudledidge, being largely ‘normal’ English spoken with a Gloucestershire accent, and they shared each other’s secrets. But this close relationship was severely put to the test when Unity went to St Margaret’s and Jessica became moody and critical about everything to do with the family.
Debo found this attitude hard to understand because she was so happy with her life at Swinbrook, surrounded by a host of animals and on good terms with both her parents. David and Sydney were probably more indulgent to her partly because she was the youngest and also because she enjoyed the same things as they did: going fishing and shooting with her father and tending her poultry with the same care as Sydney. The thought of going to boarding school made her, like Diana, feel physically sick, but ironically, when Jessica, aged 16, went to study French in Paris as the older sisters had done, it was deemed to be cheaper to send Debo to boarding school than have a governess for an only child.
The school was in Oxford; Debo described it as smelling of lino, girls and fish and she hated it – so much so that she fainted in a geometry lesson and was sick several times. She persuaded Sydney to let her leave but the term’s fees had been paid in advance. They compromised: Debo went back as a day girl for the rest of the term and after that was taught, with Celia Hay, one of Sydney’s friend’s children, by the kindly Miss Frost.
Hunting was one of Debo’s great delights, as it had been Nancy’s, but she also loved skating and was very good at it, as were David and Sydney. On Saturdays she went hunting and on Sundays David and his younger brother Jack took her skating in Oxford. She had already learned to skate on a family holiday in Pontresina and the regular visits to the Oxford rink made her good enough to be ‘spotted’ by a trainer who suggested to Sydney that Debo
After Diana married, Jessica, for whom she had always been the favourite sister, missed her badly and it was possibly from this time that her extreme rebelliousness and dissatisfaction with life began. As a young child she is remembered as being pretty, very funny and happy with her lot. Like the others she loved her animals, especially her pet sheep Miranda who became her constant companion. But unlike the others during childhood, she was far from being an outdoor girl, much preferring reading to riding. Diana spent hours with her in the pony paddock trying to teach her to ride her pony Joey, coaxing her to climb back onto him when she fell off for the umpteenth time.
Unity being sent to boarding school and Jessica not being allowed to go to school in Burford were probably other turning points; they transformed her from the little girl who would take hold of her father’s arm and shake it, telling him that she was giving him ‘palsy practice’ for his old age, into a bored and resentful teenager who couldn’t wait to leave home. She opened an account at Drummond’s Bank in which to save her ‘running away money’ – mainly her pocket money and the Christmas presents she received from various aunts. In the family the account was regarded as a joke and Nancy used it in The Pursuit of Love , where Linda’s little sister Jassy also has a running away fund, but Jessica was deadly serious as later events were to show. Tom, when he came home, realised that Jessica’s main problem was boredom with her situation and, ever the bookworm himself, introduced her to the sort of writers he felt she would enjoy. This helped but did not solve the problem.
Despite the differences in their outlook, Jessica and Debo were close companions. They would talk all day in Honnish, which was less incomprehensible than Boudledidge, being largely ‘normal’ English spoken with a Gloucestershire accent, and they shared each other’s secrets. But this close relationship was severely put to the test when Unity went to St Margaret’s and Jessica became moody and critical about everything to do with the family.
Debo found this attitude hard to understand because she was so happy with her life at Swinbrook, surrounded by a host of animals and on good terms with both her parents. David and Sydney were probably more indulgent to her partly because she was the youngest and also because she enjoyed the same things as they did: going fishing and shooting with her father and tending her poultry with the same care as Sydney. The thought of going to boarding school made her, like Diana, feel physically sick, but ironically, when Jessica, aged 16, went to study French in Paris as the older sisters had done, it was deemed to be cheaper to send Debo to boarding school than have a governess for an only child.
The school was in Oxford; Debo described it as smelling of lino, girls and fish and she hated it – so much so that she fainted in a geometry lesson and was sick several times. She persuaded Sydney to let her leave but the term’s fees had been paid in advance. They compromised: Debo went back as a day girl for the rest of the term and after that was taught, with Celia Hay, one of Sydney’s friend’s children, by the kindly Miss Frost.
Hunting was one of Debo’s great delights, as it had been Nancy’s, but she also loved skating and was very good at it, as were David and Sydney. On Saturdays she went hunting and on Sundays David and his younger brother Jack took her skating in Oxford. She had already learned to skate on a family holiday in Pontresina and the regular visits to the Oxford rink made her good enough to be ‘spotted’ by a trainer who suggested to Sydney that Debo
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